Three Up, Three Down: The MLB hot/cold report

On Wednesday night, the Pittsburgh Pirates did something they hadn't done since July 10: They lost a game. Indeed, from July 11 until last night, the Pirates rattled off a whopping 11 straight wins and had sneakily transformed into the hottest team in baseball. It's a pretty big shock when you consider that the Pirates really haven't been doing much of anything this season before managing to win nearly a dozen games in a row.

As Craig Edwards of FanGraphs noted in his article that took a deep dive into the analytical side of the streak, Pittsburgh basically transformed into baseball's best offense and bullpen during the course of the winning streak. Guys like Starling Marte, Josh Bell and Corey Dickerson have really stepped things up, while Jameson Taillon has continued to try his best to fill the ace-sized hole that Gerrit Cole left after he was traded. Felipe Vazquez also has shown why he is a force to be reckoned with in Pittsburgh's bullpen.

Again, the Pirates weren't doing much before this streak, and as of Thursday afternoon, they're only three games over .500. Still, in the mess that is the National League Wild Card race, they're actually right in the thick of things, and if they can play decent baseball through the second half of the season, they could very well be in the conversation and make things interesting once the weather starts cooling down.

A's continue to defy the odds

Another team defying all expectations reside in Oakland, but the A's have been doing this all season. In fact, their latest surge now has them in a bit of rarefied air. Only five teams have at least 60 wins at the moment: the Red Sox, Astros, Yankees, Mariners and your Oakland A's. There's really no question about it at this point. Matt Chapman, Jed Lowrie, Blake Treinen and the rest of the crew in the Bay Area are for real.

They recently had what may end up being their magnum opus of a victory when it comes to the 2018 season. After six innings on Tuesday night in Texas, the A's were down 10-2 to the Rangers. According to FanGraphs, Texas had a win expectancy of 99.5 percent after Elvis Andrus hit the dinger to push the lead to eight. All Oakland did in response was tie the game in the next three innings, force extras and win it by three runs after Khris Davis hit a moonshot in the 10th inning.

This A's team is really something else right now, which makes it even crazier that despite their amazing run of form in recent times, they're still only in third place and, as of right now, would be on the outside looking in as far as the postseason is concerned. I have a real good feeling that things are going to get more interesting as the season progresses, which means that the American League is going to be incredibly fun to watch.

Daniel Poncedeleon makes a truly special debut

Back in May 2017, Daniel Poncedeleon was in the early stages of a start at the Triple-A level when he got hit squarely in the head with a comebacker. The injury from the liner was so severe that he needed emergency brain surgery and ended up having to stay in the hospital for three weeks. He wasn't even cleared for baseball-related activities until that August, and he didn't pitch in a game until spring training this season.

It would be a massive understatement to say that Poncedeleon had a long road to travel before eventually making it to the big leagues. He finally got to make his debut on Monday night, and wouldn't you know it, he ended up throwing seven no-hit innings. While the Cardinals ended up losing the game and Poncedeleon was sent back to Triple-A afterward, you have to figure that in the aspects of life, Daniel Poncedeleon is the real winner for even making it to the highest level of baseball, much less having a stellar performance once he actually got there.

Three Down

The Mets are cursed

When it comes to injury luck, no team in baseball has had it harder than the New York Mets. Their high hopes for the 2017 season were derailed due to injury, and nearly every baseball prognosticator figured that they would improve in 2018 if they could stay healthy. As evidenced by the fact that they are currently locked in a battle to stay out of the NL East's cellar, they did not stay healthy this season.

The Mets aren't just unlucky — they are spectacularly unlucky. A simply unlucky team would lose its star pitcher to the disabled list for something like a muscle injury or maybe a nagging injury that just won't go away. The Mets are not just a simply unlucky team. They lost Noah Syndergaard to the DL after he contracted hand, foot and mouth disease following something as noble as volunteering with kids. This was so bad that it made CNN.

At this point, you really just have to feel bad for the Mets. This team basically had the baseball world in the palm of its hands after a World Series appearance in 2015, and even after losing in the 2016 NL Wild Card game, there was still hope. It's 2018 now, and the Mets basically have no hope of making the playoffs this year. It's looking bleak for next season as well. When adults are catching hand, foot and mouth disease, it's clearly a sign that your team's misfortunes are here for the long haul.

Padres give fans incentive to root for tanking

While the Mets may be cursed, the Padres are just plain bland this year. They've been playing "meh" baseball, in that they're bad but not the type of bad that makes you wonder if the baseball gods actively hate them as a franchise. They're simply in a rebuilding phase, and there's nothing wrong with that. They're taking their lumps in the hopes that they'll be the ones dealing out the punishment when the future comes around.

As a result, they're having a difficult time trying to fill the beautiful cathedral of baseball that is Petco Park. So the Padres franchise came up with an idea called the "Five-Win Pass." Basically, the team is offering you a pass to Petco Park for $99 until the team wins five games at home or until Sept. 30, whichever comes first. You plop down the $99, and the franchise will send you tickets until San Diego manages to win five games at home. Then you have to pay regular prices again.

It sounds like a good deal, but baseball is baseball so there's always a chance that the team will get hot at home — like the Padres did last year when they made this deal with the fans and ended up winning five out of their next nine at home. Surely the fans realize the jig here, so they'll actually be rooting for the home team to lose so they can continue to get in the ballpark for cheap while their team tanks. If this was done in the hopes of covertly getting the fans behind the tanking effort, then I have to applaud San Diego for the ingenuity.

Kiké Hernandez hands himself the "L"

Despite getting a lovely seven-inning start from Kenta Maeda on Tuesday night, the Dodgers managed to find themselves roped into a 16-inning affair with the Philadelphia Phillies that saw them end up running out of pitchers to use. I'd imagine that old-school fans of baseball probably suffered a bit of an eye twitch when they heard about that, but we did get to see Kiké Hernandez make an appearance as a pitcher.

Naturally, it didn't go well for the guy. Trevor Plouffe ended up crushing one to win the game for the Phillies and give Hernandez the loss in his pitching debut. Even though you can't really blame the guy for the bad situation that he was in, Hernandez still took the failure in stride. In fact, he handed himself the "L" on Twitter and seemed to laugh it off. That's the main reason why he's one of the most well-liked players on the Dodgers right now and probably why this will be one of the rare times where you see him on this side of the hot/cold report.